Length of Happiness

Chapter 7 - Rank 1

Monday. Exams were graded.

"Alright class, the exam from last week has been marked. There were some surprises here and there, but the overall results seem to be lower than I had anticipated." Mrs. Oum looked at her sheet of paper with the exam rankings. "Taeyoon. After you see your exam marks, please go to the office and see Mr. Lim."

The class took a glance at the mentioned girl and then scurried to the front to look at their rankings. Mrs. Oum stepped aside as the students swarmed around the podium.

[Class – Exam Rankings]

[Rank | Name | Mark% ]

[1 | Taeyoon | 100 ]

[2 | Jessica | 97 ]

[3 | Yuri | 95 ]

[... | ... | ... ]

[8 | Sunny | 90 ]

[22 | Tiffany | 70 ]

[33 | Hyoyeon | 60 ]

"RANK 33!? AHHHHH I AM GOING CRAZY!!! 33! WHY 33!?? WHERE IS MY 32!?" Hyoyeon cried out loud frantically.

"Yah, why are you so surprised? Rank 32 and 33 is the same!" Yuri commented.

"NO, IT'S NOT!!! I WANT 32!" the girl pouted at the number.

"Can you be quiet?"

"Why? I can't complain because I got a bad mark?"

Yuri raised an eyebrow at her, giving her an oh-really look. Then she nodded towards her side hinting that she wasn't the only one who gotten a lower-than-expected rank.

"JESSICA IS RANK TWO!? Oh, no, I thought..." Hyoyeon finally quieted down and looked at Jessica. Jessica stayed quiet, but her expression said everything, she was clearly really, really upset.

Sunny sighed at her mark. It's not like she can score much higher without being threatened by a certain individual. That being said, she is now worried that Taeyeon might be in trouble as Jessica clearly made her motifs clear when she threatened her on that day.

How? Tiffany wondered when she saw Taeyeon's ranking. How is a new student who joined school 5 weeks late was able to get rank 1...and a perfect score as well. Even if Taeyeon had an amazing teacher at home, how did she get such high mark with only one day notice? Midnight cramming? But even so, that seemed impossible. She looked around the classroom, it seems that everyone was talking about Taeyeon. Too bad both Taeyeon and Jess did not have the patience to tutor her, which just makes her frown.

She felt happy for Taeyeon until Jessica's upset face reminded Tiffany of what she saw last Friday. Deep down she had a bad feeling about whatever it was, so she decided to talk about it with Jessica when they have a break.

70, not bad, at least it's a Pass, I won't die....right? She thought of her own grade. She sighed and returned to her seat, which was no longer beside Jessica. She didn't know how to confront Jessica after what she saw, so she asked Hyoyeon to switch back. Of course, she didn't tell them the reason, except that she wanted to listen to the lecture more closely near the front of the classroom.

Taeyeon wasn't among the bunch that was crowded around the sheet of paper, because she knew she got perfect. The questions were pretty straightforward for her. When she entered the office, Mr. Lim was studying a sheet of paper, which she presumed to be her exam paper.